“History Will Absolve Me”

Pope John Paul II Visits Cuba

Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba in 1998 marked the first time a pope visited the island. Although Cuba’s Communist government has long discouraged membership in the Roman Catholic Church, Cuban president Fidel Castro extended an invitation to the pope and encouraged citizens to welcome him during his stay in Cuba.

On July 26, 1953, Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro led approximately 180 young men in an attack on the Moncada military fortress in Santiago de Cuba. This assault on the political leadership of dictator Fulgencio Batista ended in Castro’s capture and imprisonment. At his trial Castro acted as his own attorney and gave the following speech in his defense. Batista granted him amnesty in 1955, and Castro went into exile in Mexico. In 1956 he returned to Cuba with a small group of guerrillas, calling themselves the 26th of July Movement. Their revolution eventually triumphed in 1959.

(L - R) Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and Comrade Che Guevara in smiling exchanges before  Castro  triumphant entry into Havana.